1. Anna is reading her psychology text.

The activation of receptors in her retina by a source of

physical energy is called _____.
Sensation
2. The sorting out, interpretation, analysis, and integration of stimuli by the sense organs and
brain is known as _____.
Perception
3. Which of the following statements is TRUE of sensation and perception?
Sensation involves the activation of sense receptors; perception involves interpretation.
5. A(n) _____ threshold is the stimulus intensity that is detected 50% of the time.
Absolute
6. One can detect a single drop of perfume diffused in an area the size of a one-bedroom
apartment. This is due to:
absolute threshold.
7. Which of the following most closely approximates the meaning of the term noise as
psychophysicists use it?
Any distraction
8. The smallest level of added or reduced stimulation required to sense that a change in
stimulation has occurred is known as the _____.
difference threshold
9. A snack manufacturer realizes that he must increase the salt content of his company's chips by
3% in order for a sample of consumers to notice that the chips are saltier than they were before.
This example most nearly illustrates the concept of a(n):
difference threshold.
10. Weber's law states that a just noticeable difference is a _____.
constant proportion of the intensity of an initial stimulus
11. Acme Foods wants to make its chips saltier, but it doesn't want to spend more than it has to
on salt. A sample of consumers are asked to compare its current chip (saltiness = 100) with saltier
versions and to say whether the new version is saltier. On average, sample consumers reliably
say the new chip is saltier when its saltiness value is 108, but not when its saltiness value is
below 108. Assuming Acme Foods' sample consumers are representative of people in general,
which of the following best represents the just noticeable difference for saltiness?
8%
12. Which of the following laws would help explain why a person in a quiet room is more
startled by the ringing of a telephone than a person who is already in a noisy room?
Weber's law

13. _____ is an adjustment in sensory capacity after prolonged exposure to unchanging stimuli.
Adaptation
15. Which of the following words is most nearly synonymous with the term refract?
Bend
16. Which of the following sequences accurately reflects the order in which light passes through
the structures of the eye during vision?
Cornea pupil lens retina
17. The part of the eye that converts the electromagnetic energy of light to electrical impulses for
transmission to the brain is known as the _____.
Retina
18. As compared to cones, rods:
are highly sensitive to light.
19. Adelaide notices a flicker of motion out of the corner of her eye as she hurries down a dim
alley late at night. Sydney deciphers a complex wiring diagram under the bright glare of her desk
lamp. Adelaide's vision is driven mainly by her _____. Sydney is mainly using her _____.
rods; cones
20. Which of the following sequences accurately reflects the order in which light stimulates cells
early in the visual processing of an image?
Rods and cones bipolar cells ganglion cells
21. _____ cells receive information directly from the rods and cones and communicate that
information to the _____ cells.
Bipolar; ganglion
22. The point at which the optic nerves meet and then split is termed the optic:
chiasm
23. _____ is the activation of neurons in the cortex by visual stimuli of specific shapes or
patterns.
Feature detection
24. In the most common form of color blindness:
all red and green objects appear yellow.
25. Damon is among the 7% of males with color blindness. He suffers from the most common
form of color blindness. Which of the following statements best illustrates Damon's experience
of color?
Red apples on a tree seem to be yellow.

26. The _____ states that there are three kinds of cones in the retina, each of which responds
primarily to a specific range of wavelengths.
trichromatic theory of color vision
27. The trichromatic theory was first proposed by _____. The opponent-process theory was first
proposed by _____.
Thomas Young; Ewald Hering
28. Which of the following is true of the opponent-process theory?
The opponent-process theory suggests that in addition to black and white, there are four,
rather than three, colors.
29. Suppose you stare at an illustration of the American flag for a while, then glance at a blank
white page. The red stripes look green when you glance at the blank page because:
the receptor cells for the red component of the pairing become fatigued.
30. With respect to the trichromatic and the opponent-process theories of color perception, which
of the following statements is most accurate?
Trichromatic process works within the retina itself; whereas opponent mechanisms operate
both in the retina and at later stages of neuronal processing.
32. Every day, you see, hear, smell, taste, and feel stimuli from the outside world. Collecting this
data about that world is the function of
sensation.
34. ________ processing involves starting with a sense of what is happening and then applying
that framework to information in the world.
Top-down
35. Contestants on the game show Wheel of Fortune are given labels to assist them solving the
puzzles. These labels activate ________ processing.
top-down
36. When you visit a new city for the first time, it often takes a lot of cognitive effort to find your
way around. One explanation lies in the fact that new experiences require us to rely primarily on
________ processing.
bottom-up
37. As young children learn to read, they often have difficulty comprehending what the story is
saying because they are working so hard to decode what the words are. This reflects an overreliance on which type of processing?
Bottom-up
38. You are watching a movie with some scenes set in a noisy bar, some scenes containing
gunfire, and some scenes containing very quiet dialogue. During the quiet scenes, you can hear
most of the dialogue, but find that if the actors drop their volume on certain lines, you cannot

hear what they are saying. This reflects the fact that a message must exceed a(n) ________ in
order to be processed.
Threshold
40. You are studying in your dorm room. You gently request that your neighbor turn the volume
of his television down until you cannot hear it. You are asking your neighbor to find your
absolute threshold.
41. When you are able to taste a quarter teaspoon of salt dissolved in a glass of water five times
out of 10, you have attained your ________ threshold.
absolute
42. If a person hears two tones that differ in intensity just barely enough to be detected, the point
of detection is referred to as the ________ threshold.
Difference
44. You arrive at your friend's apartment for a big party at the end of the semester. When you first
arrive, the music is so loud that it almost hurts your ears. After a couple of hours, even though
the music is still at the same volume, it doesn't bother you anymore, and you like it. This change
over time describes the process of
sensory adaptation.
45. You cannot feel the waistband of your underwear, even though you know it is there. This is
the result of
sensory adaptation.
46. In regards to light, wavelength is the ________ and amplitude is the ________.
hue; brightness
47. You are outside enjoying a beautiful day. The sky is bright blue. When the sun sets, the sky
turns a gorgeous salmon pink. After the sun has set, the sky pales to pink, then lavender; as it
gets dark, the sky becomes a deeper purple, then midnight blue, and finally it looks black. The
color changes you perceive in the sky are due to the ________ of light that it reflects.
Wavelength
48. To read this question, you must look at it. After the light passes into your eyes, the incoming
light waves are recorded by receptor cells located in the
retina.
49. Toward the center of the retina, there is an area that contains only cones. This area is called
the
fovea.
50. You try to note the incredibly fine details of a computer microchip through a magnifying
glass. On which area of the retina are you focusing this image?
Fovea

51. Jane is having trouble sleeping. As she sits in bed looking around the darkened room, she
notices that her peripheral vision seems to be better than her central vision. This is because vision
in low light conditions
depends on the rods.
52. Who is relying most heavily on their rods?
Marcus is trying to find his seat as the movie begins to play.
53. Near the center of the retina there is a spot where there are no rods and no cones. This spot
exists because of
the optic nerve.
54. Hannah, a first-year psychology student, just discovered she has a blind spot in each eye.
Should she be concerned?
No, everyone has blind spots.
55. If a student asks you why we can see colors and you want to provide an answer based on the
opponent-process theory of color vision, you tell the student it is because there are ________
different types of cone receptors.
Four
56. The ________ theory of color vision most accurately describes the process of color vision at
the level of the retina.
Trichromatic
57. Afterimages refer to
the sensation left over after an image is removed.
58. One way to think about how we process color images is that the ________ describes the
events at the first level of neurons in the visual system, while the ________ best describes the
activities of neurons in the rest of the visual system.
trichromatic theory; opponent-process theory
Taste buds are bunched together in
the papillae.
When you see the bright color and round shape of a tomato on the vine in your vegetable garden,
smell its sun-warmed fragrance, hear the buzzing of a nearby bee, feel the velvety texture of its
skin, and taste the flavor as you bite into it, your process of receiving this stimulus energy from
the environment is called
sensation.
Figure is to ground as ________ is to ________.
a white cloud; a blue sky

In regards to what we see in our world, the range of wavelengths that humans are sensitive to is
called the _____.

Visual spectrum
An architect is designing apartments and wants them to be soundproof. She asks a psychologist
what the smallest amount of sound is that can be heard. Her question is most related to the
________ threshold.

Absolute
When you are paid $1 instead of $2, it is a big deal. When you are paid $91 instead of $92, it feels
less painful. This is similar to
Webers law
Dr. Breiland examines the relationship between the physical properties of light, such as its amplitude
and wavelength, and humans' perception of color. Which of the following terms MOST
ACCURATELY describes Dr. Breiland's field of study?
psychophisics